Turn on the haunches from our last lesson. (and a couple of rico freak-out photos!)

[Amado]

I had a lesson the other day - first dressage one in a long while. Rico was very good boy, except for a couple of minutes part way through when he completely spazzed out as they started bringing the horses in for dinner. Two ponies came flying in the man door, made a ton of noise on the gravel, and he got a pretty upset (these are stills from the video, so they are blurry) :





But he settled back down and we worked on some 2nd level TOH. I have trouble with this = keeping him soft and flexed properly and bent around my inside leg, keeping him stepping around the shoulders, but taking little steps behind. And remembering to turn my shoulders the right way! This instructor had me start schooling it from a half pass, do a few steps, and then half pass out, always thinking stepping forward so I didn't get stuck. That helped. Here's the video, though the quality isn't great, it was sitting on the rail and the person turning it wasn't always watching the screen.

https://youtu.be/ytznA9xXrFA

[Chisamba]

well done,
were you pleased with your progress? it looked like work in the right direction to me but i have nothing to compare it with

[Amado]

Yes, I was pleased. Along with the "doing it thinking half pass", she also had me aid him occasionally on the shoulder (I used the whip, but she sometimes uses her knee or her toe) - which really helped him to get the idea of stepping the shoulders around. I think sometimes I have trouble with too much outside leg messing up the positioning of the haunches and making his hind legs take steps that are to big. (if that makes sense) The size of these was better (smaller) than what I had been getting. (at least I think - based on looking at our footprints in the sand!) I need to have somebody video me more often, it doesn't always feel like it looks...